Monsters
by happyhooligan2001
Summary: Chloe O'Brian tries to recover from her trauma and face her fears. But can she handle it when her worst nightmares come true? Takes place the morning after Bless Me Father. Post Day 5. Now complete.
1. Chewbacca Is Senile

**Chewbacca is Senile**

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Chloe O'Brian or anyone else from 24. I don't own anybody. I think owning people is wrong. Didn't we fight a war over this once?

The little girl ran down the tunnel, it was dark but not totally dark. There was a dim light coming from somewhere, not enough to really see by. She could just barely make out shapes in the darkness. Tentacles, glowing eyes, sharp teeth, flapping bat wings. Whatever was out there was slowly stalking her. No matter how fast she ran she couldn't get away from them. Something grabbed her ankle and she squealed as she fell forward. Now her Scooby Doo pajamas were covered with mud. The tentacle yanked at her ankle but she pulled herself free. Sobbing she scrambled to her feet and dashed through a large spider web. The sticky web clung to her face and hair and spiders crawled all over her as she tried to claw them away. She stumbled blindly down the tunnel until she saw looming ahead of her a large dark man with an octopus for a head. Huge bat wings opened from his shoulders. The girl skidded to a halt and then she heard the other monsters creeping up behind her. There was no escape. Nowhere to run. They had her trapped. "Daddy! Daddy! Help me!" she screamed. "The monsters are after me! Help!"

The door to her bedroom flew open and the room was flooded with light. The large blond man dressed in boxer shorts and a T-shirt ran to the bed and held the little girl to his chest. "Daddy the monsters were chasing me!" she sobbed. "They were awful!"

Her father gently stroked her head. "Sweetheart, it's all right. There's no such thing as monsters, they aren't real. See, there aren't any monsters here. You can sleep with me and mommy tonight."

About half an hour later the girl was snug in bed between her parents. Her mommy whispered "Are you asleep honey?" The child didn't twitch. Eyes shut, steady breathing, listening.

"This is all your fault you know. You shouldn't have left that godawful book out where she could find it."

"I didn't know she could read it." Her father answered, "She's only four, she should be learning her ABCs not reading H.P. Lovecraft."

"Well Mrs. Willis over at the preschool says she's the most gifted child she's ever seen in the twenty four years she's worked there but she doesn't seem to like the other children. She prefers keeping to herself."

"I'm sure it's just a phase she's going through, Chloe's going to turn out just fine."

30 YEARS LATER 

"We've got to let him in!" Chloe screamed, "If we don't he'll die!"

"We can't do that!" George Mason told her, "We'll contaminate the room and everyone will die!"

"He's right." Gael said from across the room. "You'll kill us all."

"No! I'll just open the door a crack. Just barely wide enough for Edgar to slip in then I'll seal it immediately. Not much gas will get in. Not enough to hurt anybody."

"Chloe no!" Michelle screamed but it was too late.

Chloe opened the door, let Edgar in, and shut it immediately. "You're safe, thank God you're safe!" She sobbed hugging him.

Edgar just stared blankly at her and said with a dead monotone, "You screwed up Chloe, you just killed everybody."

Chloe backed away horrified. Edgar was still standing like a statue but blisters started appearing on his skin. They quickly grew into giant boils which exploded releasing a sickly yellow gas. Chloe could hear Kim screaming behind her as the gas spread though out the room. Jack grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around to face him. "Chloe! Do you know what you've done!"

"I'm sorry!" Chloe sobbed as all her friends fell to the floor and started twitching and vomiting. "I'm sorry!"

Jack was jerking spasmodically at her feet looking up at her with hatred. Kim, Gael, Audrey, Tony, Michelle, Barry, Bill, and George were all dying in agony and it was all her fault. After a few minutes they were still and Chloe could feel the gas enter her own lungs. Agony raced through every nerve ending in her body as she fell to the floor next to Jack's still body and threw up an impossible amount of vomit. As she lay on the floor flopping and twitching the door opened and monsters came in. A lot of monsters. They filed into the room and stood in a circle around her.

"She did just what we wanted." Christopher Henderson said.

"Yes, no one can stop us now." Stephen Saunders agreed.

Habib Marwan nudged Chloe with his toe. "America is ours!"

"Not just America, the world!" Vladimir Bierko exulted.

Nina Myers bent over "What's the matter little girl?" she asked in a mocking tone, "Having a bad day?"

Chloe clawed at the floor trying to get away from the monsters but they just stood around her laughing, they had her surrounded. There was no escape.

Chloe awoke with a start. Her heart was pounding and she was soaked in sweat. She shuddered at the memory of the nightmare. She also heard a movement. Someone was in her room! She didn't move, eyes shut, steady breathing, listening. One hand slowly moved under the pillow to the 9mm Glock. When her hand closed over the grip she opened her eyes and brought the pistol up aiming at the shadow moving near her bed and squeezed the trigger. Nothing! Panicked Chloe fumbled at the safety and pointed the pistol in the face of her cat, Babbage. She jerked the muzzle up at the last instant as the loud crack echoed through the apartment and the bullet buried itself into the wall. Babbage disappeared as if by magic. Chloe dropped the automatic on the floor and sat up in the bed hugging her legs and crying. Her daddy was wrong. There are such things as monsters. They are real.

The clock read 3:19 AM and Chloe knew there wasn't any way she was going to go back to sleep as she padded into the kitchen dressed only in her panties and an extra large T-shirt that hung down to her knees. She wasn't worried about the police. When she was in training they told her that when people hear one bang they automatically assume that it's something besides a gunshot. A backfire, someone dropping something, a slammed door. As long as there weren't any witnesses and no fuss you can get one free shot. She put on a pot of coffee and checked the refrigerator. Hmm… hot black coffee and cold dried out pizza. The food of kings. Chloe wished she could go back to CTU and look for Jack but Mr. Buchanan left strict instructions to security not to let her back in until 8:00 AM Monday morning. She needed some time off to calm down and relax. Yeah, nightmares, cold sweats, and shooting the cat. All very relaxing. I would recommend it to anyone.

The fact was they had no clue what happened to Jack. Chloe wished for anything. Even a propaganda video. She remembered an old film they showed in her training class years ago. It showed an American P.O.W. in a North Vietnamese prison. A skinny, scarecrow of a man making a propaganda film for his captors. But Chloe knew what was going on. She let herself slip into The Zone. Concentrate. Ignore the words. Meaningless. Typical commie propaganda claptrap. It's not the real message. It's just a distraction.The real message is in the eyes. Blinking. Morse Code. T-O-R-T-U-R-E. His captors thought they had defeated him but he was still playing the game. They had lost but they didn't even know it. He changed the rules. Chloe didn't know who this pale, sad, abused ghost from the past was but she fell in love with him. He never gave up. Never let himself be defeated. Just like Jack. Chloe was the only one in the class who picked up the message. "Gee, doesn't anybody bother learning Morse code anymore!" She had shouted into the blank stupid faces of her fellow students.

If Bill wanted her to relax then she knew how to relax. She had some friends who could help her out. She took the pot of coffee and the pizza to her computer and tilted the chair until the cat slid off. "Sorry Pascal."

She sat down and activated the screen. Her last program came up with a number, 31.77. When Chloe saw the number an icy grip of fear clutched her heart and a lump rose up in her throat. "No wonder I'm having nightmares." She muttered under her breath as she erased the program. "What kind of sick person would do such a thing. Maybe they're right. Maybe I really am crazy."

She quickly hacked into the CTU mainframe and checked to see where her friends were. Popeye was on his way to southern Canada. On the list of people who were probably holding Jack the Canadians were pretty close to the bottom of the list. Where's Janeway? Oh, she's over the Indian Ocean. Nothing there. Spock is over the western Pacific heading to Oregon. Chewbacca… Hello! Chewie's in Africa. Chloe checked his route. OK a prison camp in northern Somalia. ETA, twenty minutes. Is anybody with Chewie? No, hardly anybody used Chewie anymore. Chewbacca was a senile, cantankerous, half-blind old KH 11 spy satellite launched March 14, 1983 Keyhole series. The long decades in space had taken their toll on the old boy. Maneuvering thrusters had long since used up their fuel. IR camera was shot and radar mapping was erratic, but the visible light camera still worked. That was good enough.

Chloe checked the other satellites. Gandalf was going to northern China. She sent out feelers. Some one was flying Gandalf. No surprise. Gandalf was a brand new Lacrosse launched less than two months ago. Who's flying him? The camera focused on a monastery in Tibet? Chloe checked the coordinates, Nepal! That must be Indy over at NSA. Indy liked looking at archeological sites on the way to the main targets. Pyramids, temples, whatever. Chloe didn't know who Indy was. She probably could have found out if she cared which she didn't. Indy probably had stacks of old National Geographics in his/her house. Indy also didn't like passengers so Chloe wouldn't be able to control any cameras. Gandalf would be passing near a forced labor camp in northern China in thirty five minutes. Hopefully Indy would focus a camera there provided he/she didn't get distracted by the Great Wall or something. Chloe set a kitchen timer to remind her and went back to Chewbacca. Chloe wasn't worried about all the felonies she was committing right now. She remembered what Miles had told her once. "You think because you're smarter than the rest of us the rules don't apply to you!" Well I am and they don't.

She uploaded a small virus to Chewie's on board computer. For the next fifteen minutes it would erase any record of commands sent to it. The virus would then erase itself. No one would suspect a thing unless they really looked and even then they would just think it was a senile old satellite having a brain fart. She had to depress the camera 19.4 degrees. It stuck so she had to click it back and forth a few times to jar it loose. "We make quite a pair," she told Chewie, "Two broken down old soldiers trying to give meaning to each others lives.

She was in The Zone now. She wasn't the frightened little girl afraid of monsters. Nor was she the lonely, awkward, socially crippled geek. She was a goddess flying over the dusty African plains. Searching for her lost love.


	2. I'm Not A Hero

Monsters Chapter 2

Not a Hero

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from 24. Fauve is a character created by Aragothwinelfblade and used with her blessings. Thank you for letting me play with your friends.

Chloe let herself slip out of The Zone. Crowe T. Robot, a year old KH12 just left North Korea and was over the ocean on his way to Japan. She rubbed her eyes and disconnected the feed. If she spent any more time staring at satellite photos she would get cross eyed. Chloe didn't really expect to find Jack tonight. It was an awful big planet but she had to do something. She glanced up at the clock. "Shit! Gotta be at church in forty minutes!" Chloe wasn't really in the mood for church but she made a promise to Father Mike and Chloe kept her promises. He was a trusted friend and God knows she didn't have very many of those left.

She dashed into the bathroom. No time for a shower, wet washrag to her face and armpits, some quick swipes of deodorant. Quick look in the mirror, nothing fancy, a little lipstick, brush her tangled hair and bind it into a ponytail. Chloe stepped into the bedroom and looked at the black dress draped over the chair. She was starting to hate the damned thing but Angie's funeral was this afternoon and she didn't want to change. While slipping on the dress she looked at the pistol still lying on the floor and hesitated. No, not today. She just remembered to feed the cats before rushing out.

Chloe felt very vulnerable sitting in the church pew. She hated carrying her pistol and now she hated not carrying it. She felt like terrorists were going to come popping out and attacking her any second. This was ridiculous. Most people don't carry guns and their lives are perfectly normal. Why was she always afraid? Then Father Petrowsky looked directly at her during the intersessions and offered "For all the lost people trying to find their way home." And Chloe chanted with the rest of the congregation "Lord hear our prayer!" He remembered her and Jack!

In the parking lot after Mass Chloe decided to call her old college roommate on her cell phone. 'Fauve will know what to do,' she thought, 'maybe she can bring my craziness back down to an acceptable level.' The phone rang several times before it was picked up. "Wha?" came a sleepy voice clearly irritated at being woken up at 11:30 on a Sunday morning.

"Fauve, it's me Chloe, I need to see you."

"Chloe! Are you all right?"

"Yeah, no, I don't know. Things have been really bad. A lot of my friends just died. I'm really scared almost all the time. I think its PTSD.

"OK I'll see you…"

"Not your office, you know how much psychiatrists offices creep me out."

"I know! I wasn't going to suggest that. Come on over to my house and we can talk."

"OK."

"And I'm going to have to charge you. I can't afford to do Pro Bono work anymore."

"How much?"

"One gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Not the cheap stuff either, the good stuff. And I want you to loan me your Buffy and Angel DVDs."

"All of them?"

"Not all at once. Bring the first season of each over. When I'm finished I'll return them and pick up the next season."

"Oh, all right. I'll be over in about forty five minutes."

After a stop at the ice cream place Chloe went back to her apartment just long enough to grab the DVDs and leave. As she pulled out of the parking lot she didn't notice the blue Ford Escort that started up and began following her.

Fauve must have been looking out the window because her door opened before Chloe even got to the porch. The small Hawaiian woman with the wildly multicolored hair looked over Chloe's dark rimmed eyes, pale face, and black dress. "My you're looking… uh festive."

"I got a funeral this afternoon."

"Oh, I'm sorry! Anyone I know?"

"No, a woman from work. Just had a baby. She thought she could both save the world and watch her son grow up. Silly little thing, I treated her like crap."

"Come on in honey, we'll talk about it."

A few minutes later they were sitting in the kitchen over dishes of ice cream. Fauve leaned back in her chair, "So tell me what happened."

"First of all there are to be no records of this. Nothing on paper, nothing in your computer."

Fauve made an X on her chest, "Cross my heart."

"First I need to apologize to you for that big argument we had about Spencer. You were right. I was wrong. He was even worse than you said. I don't think I really ever loved him but I wanted to. I wanted him to love me. I don't want to go through life without ever having a man really love me."

"Well I hope that bastard got what he deserved!"

"He got fired. He betrayed me and my fellow agents. He just thought I was an easy lay and a way to get information from my computer. Some people died because I trusted him. It was all my fault! But since he thought he was working for the president. Hell! He was working for the president. We let him go. But you never let down a fellow agent! Whether you like them or not you stick together!"

"He got off a little too easy. I'll have to think up something a little more imaginative."

"No! I don't want to spend any more energy on him. He's not worth it. Let's just let him fade away. Besides he's not the real problem."

"Half the people I care about were either lost or killed in one day all for the dumbest evil scheme in the history of evil schemes. 'Let's sell nerve gas to terrorists. Nothing bad could ever come from that! And while we're at it let's betray the terrorists. Who ever heard of a terrorist ever holding a grudge? And if we can prove terrorists have poison gas then some how people will give us free oil!' Not even I'm crazy enough to make sense of it. A retarded chimp could come up with a better plan."

"Of course part of this brilliant plan involves killing Chloe O'Brian! I started the day off finding a bomb in my car. It was about the nicest thing to happen to me all day. Things went downhill from there! I got arrested twice. Some of my best friends were murdered. Jack disappeared and is God knows where probably being tortured. And now I'm having nightmares, cold sweats, paranoia, and panic attacks. Father Mike thinks its PTSD."

"It sounds like it." Fauve said sympathetically, "So who's Father Mike?"

"My confessor."

"You have a confessor? That sounds like fun! Can I see him?"

"No, he's an old man. I don't think his heart can handle your confession! Besides you're not even Catholic."

"I know, I just like to brag." Chloe made a face at her. "But getting back to your condition you've been through quite a bit. There are some drugs that can help you relax and get some more sleep…"

"No! No drugs, nothing that would affect my brain chemistry! Without my brains I'm nothing."

"The effects would only be marginal."

"Marginal gets people killed! No drugs!"

"OK, we'll do without the drugs. We also have psychoanalysis, group therapy, and controlled exposure to stressful conditions where you are in total control the whole time. Let's start with your paranoia, how bad is it?

"I've started carrying a gun."

"Are you packing heat now?"

"No, I left it at home. I went to church without my pistol and it felt like I was naked."

"So you know how it feels to go to church naked? I've always wanted to do that but I'm too chicken!"

"Heathen!"

"But seriously, the fact that you were able to leave it at home shows that you are recovering. You should get better with time. After all your job doesn't actually involve shooting people."

"Actually it does, I have killed people and hurt innocent people."

"Oh Chloe."

"You don't know what it's like in my world. It's an awful place and we sometimes have to do awful things. I'm not really sorry for anything I've done but I'm not the same person you used to know."

"Chloe, I don't know what kind of terrible things you've had to do but I do know that you're a good person and you'll always be a good person."

"Not for very long. I'm probably going to die soon." Fauve got a shocked look on her face. "I want you to find good homes for my cats. You can also have first dibs on the stuff in my apartment. Not the car though. I'm leaving it to my nephew."

"Chloe! You're not thinking of doing something foolish are you?"

Chloe rolled her eyes, "I'm not suicidal if that's what you mean. I just ran a statistical five year program on my computer and if I keep working at CTU I only have a 31.77 percent chance of being alive five years from now. That leaves a 68.23 percent chance of me kicking the bucket."

"It can't be that bad!"

"CTU-LA opened in 1993, not that long ago. Come over some time and I'll show you our Wall of Remembrance. Then I'll show you our other Wall of Remembrance because the first one is full."

"I'll come over there tomorrow morning and together we'll hand in your resignation to that insane asylum!"

"No, I can't quit, they need me."

"Bullshit! I know you think that the United States of America can never survive without little Chloe tapping on her keyboard but I think if we survived two world wars we can survive you quitting!"

"It's not that simple! I've got to do this!"

"Look! If you want to be a patriot fine! Go to the FBI, CIA, or some other agency! Go join the Air Force and they'll give you a cute uniform! Just get out of that hell hole!"

By this time both women were standing up shouting at each other. Fauve was gesturing wildly while Chloe kept her arms crossed tightly across her chest. "Fauve! It's not the same! You have no idea what's really going on out there!"

"Chloe! I love you and I'm not just going to stand by and watch you die!"

"You don't know what kind of monsters we have to deal with! Someone's got to stand up to them and stop them!"

"So I'm going to lose my best friend because you want to be a hero!"

"I'm not a hero! And I don't want to die! I'm so scared I'm about to pee my pants but this is important!"

"So what's so great about your crappy job that's worth dying for!"

"If you could have stopped the Pearl Harbor attack by dying would you? Or 9-11? How about the bombing of Hiroshima? Would you die for a city?" That hit a sore spot. Fauve had been very active in the anti-nuke movement in college. " And if not could I live my life knowing all those people died so I could spend another 40 years in an apartment full of cats eating microwave popcorn? Is that really a life? It's like I'm trapped."

Fauve had tears on her cheeks "So when you die, what happens then? The whole world goes to hell?"

"If I die someone else will replace me. If they die someone will replace them."

"Well at least take a vacation!"

"Not til we find out what happened to Jack. Besides there's something else I'm working on. If I told you about it I'd have to bore you to death but it's important. But I won't go until I find Jack. That's nonnegotiable."

"OK, as soon as you find Jack. Don't make me kidnap you because I will!"

Chloe's purse chirped and she pouted at it.

"Just ignore it honey."

"No, it might be important." Chloe fished out her PDA. "O'Brian, this better be good."

…………………….

Chloe's face blanched, "Oh my God!" She opened her laptop and began typing, "OK, I've opened a connection. Download everything we got to me." Her fingers flew over the keyboard. "If they came in from the highway they must have gone by that Walmart. Send someone there to see if any of their parking lot cameras cover the street. Mueller hasn't been here long enough to piss anybody off that bad. Find out what he's been doing in Boston. I'll need passenger lists from every flight from Boston in the past five days along with airport car rental records. Also they might have stolen a car from long term parking, get security tapes of cars leaving and scan the license plates. I have a program code named Daisy Duck that will compare passenger lists with license numbers and look for discrepancies. No! It's not Daisy Duke! It's Daisy Duck! DELTA UNIFORM CHARLIE KILO Duck! Doesn't anyone know who Daisy Duck is?"

Fauve chimed in "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Chloe covered her transmitter, "Yeah! Shut up! OK Mueller's car was abandoned. Make sure LAPD doesn't touch it until we get there."

Fauve kept quiet. She'd seen Chloe in these moods before and didn't take the rudeness personally.

Chloe was in The Zone now. Information was processing through her brain rapidly as the facts came in. A new replacement field agent from Boston had gone dark. She'd only spoken to him once when he first reported in and didn't like him. Peter Mueller had asked her to dinner when she knew from his records that he was married with his wife still in Boston for a couple of weeks. Chloe didn't like womanizers. She had enough of that crap with Morris and told him off loud enough to draw grins from around the room. Since then they had only exchanged angry glares. But he'd gone dark a few hours ago so CTU sent an agent to his house to check up on his two children and the babysitter. The children , Veronica age 9 and Paul age 5 were gone. Whoever took them didn't need the babysitter Amy King age 16 so they took her down into the basement and killed her with a…Oh Dear God! A blowtorch! No no no no no. Chloe moved her laptop to make sure her friend couldn't see the body. 'Fauve can live in her world and I'll live in mine.' Feelings of terror and rage welled up inside her, 'Stay calm! Stay in The Zone!'

Fauve watched her friend work for 10 more minutes and then Chloe shut her laptop, tears glistened in her eyes. "That's all I can do here. I've got to go back to CTU. Something bad has come up. Sorry about what I said, I'm such a bitch. Can you do me a favor and go to Angie's funeral? 1st Baptist Church on Elmhurst at 4:00. Tell them you're a friend from CTU. They should think someone from there cared. And for God's sake wear a wig! It's a funeral not a circus!"

Fauve nodded, "Ok I'll go."

As Chloe walked out to her car she heard a noise behind her, before she could turn around she felt a gun muzzle press into her kidney. "Go around to the side of the house!" a gruff voice commanded her. Chloe went to the side behind the tall bushes Fauve had planted. She was pushed against the wall and expertly patted down. The man pulled her car keys and ID out of her purse and tossed the purse under a bush. "Let's go."

Chloe now saw his face and recognized Agent Mueller.

"OK I'll go to dinner with you. Don't be so pushy."

Agent Mueller took her out to her car and opened the passenger door. "Get in and slide over behind the wheel." He climbed in beside her and handed her the keys. "Now drive."

"Where to?"

"Just drive."

Chloe took off down the street. The gun was aimed steadily at her temple. "Do you mind aiming that thing at my heart? I kind of wanted an open casket funeral." The gun lowered a few inches.

"I'm sorry Agent O'Brian, I'm so sorry. They have my kids!"

Chloe's finger wandered to the backside of the steering wheel. Disguised as a Phillips screw head was a small button she called her "Panic button" She had it installed her self and no one at CTU knew about it. At least, no one who was still alive. Depressing it would set off an automated distress call to the CTU mainframe with GPS coordinates. Tactical teams would be activated and LAPD would be notified. They would be picked up in a matter of minutes. "What do they want?"

"They want you Agent O'Brian. They want to exchange you for the children. Otherwise they'll kill them like they did the babysitter."

Chloe's finger gently caressed the button. If she pushed it she would be safe, Mueller would be taken into custody and two small children would get what Amy got. Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! She had no illusions what these monsters would do if they got a hold of her. They would love to have a federal agent. They would chew her up like a wad of gum and spit her out when they're done. Amy King was a rush job. They would take their time with Chloe. Probably days, she would die alone, screaming, surrounded by monsters.

'Would you die for a city? What about two strangers you've never met?' Her finger paused over the button and then withdrew. "Put the gun away Peter, I'll make the exchange. We'll get your kids back." She wanted her voice to come out brave and confident but it sounded more like a croak. Her ears turned pink with embarrassment. Now Mueller will know what a coward she was. Her heart was pounding and her stomach felt like a lump of concrete. She knew now she could never be a hero. Heroes don't get this scared.


	3. Her Worst Nightmare

**Her Worst Nightmare**

**Monsters Chapter 3**

Disclaimer: Yes I own 24! I really do! The DVDs are very shiny and pretty and they snap right into the foldy box thingy. I just don't own the rights to the characters that's all.

Warning: The next two chapters are going to get pretty dark and horrible these people are some pretty terrible people. Don't say I didn't warn you. The last chapter will be better with flowers, sunshine, and fluffy kittens.

After much negotiation with the bad guys they finally agreed on a location for the exchange. Chloe actually suggested the site. A railroad trestle out in the boondocks, it crossed a fairly wide valley with a rapid river flowing through it. The only way to get across quickly would be on the tracks in plain view. It also had good views of the surrounding territory making it very difficult to sneak up on. The kidnappers assured them that the children were all right and didn't know what happened to Amy King. Thank God for small favors.

All the drive up there, Agent Mueller kept apologizing for the mess and promising to do anything he could to get her back. Chloe kept silent. She didn't think of him as being the arrogant womanizer she disliked so much but as a frightened father and fellow agent in trouble. Her mind searched for some sliver of hope that she might actually get out of this alive. 'Maybe these are the same guys holding Jack,' she thought, 'The two of us together will find a way to escape. Yeah! And maybe they're holding Amelia Earhart and she'll fly us away in her magic airplane.' It wasn't any use. She was going to die.

At the trestle Chloe could see the small group assembled on the other side. Three large figures and two small ones, Mueller was behind a rock with his gun out in case of some kind of treachery. Chloe stepped out on the tracks. They had a thin patina of rust showing that this line wasn't used much anymore. She looked around as only a doomed soul might. Everything was so beautiful! The trees, the grass, the sky with its scattered soft clouds, she inhaled deeply it smelled so planty! Being a city girl she didn't know much about the woods. 'Maybe I should have gone out more instead of holing up in my apartment so much.' She picked up another scent. Something scared a skunk! She inhaled the musk like it was the sweetest perfume. It seemed like every one of her senses was super charged. She never felt so alive. The children started slowly across the trestle so she stepped out and began walking. Good thing she wasn't wearing high heels. She wished she'd worn slacks. She felt ridiculous walking out there in her black dress as if going to a prom. Not that Chloe had ever been to a prom. 'Never been a teenager, not really. Kissed my first boy two months shy of my twentieth birthday.' Resentment rose inside her, 'It's not fair! It might not have been a great life but it's the only one I'll ever have and they have no right to take it from me!' She then thought of poor Amy King. She didn't even have a face anymore! Empty eye sockets and a jaw still open in a final scream, hatred welled inside Chloe overpowering her fear. 'Those evil wicked bastards! She was just a kid doing babysitting on the weekends! She never really had a life. Sixteen years of hope and promise ending in one morning of terror and agony.' The hate was burning like a white hot fire in Chloe. Taking out these A-holes would be worth dying for.

As Veronica and little Paul drew closer Chloe's heart grew softer. Oh! They're so cute! Paul was obviously frightened and Veronica had her hands on his shoulders encouraging him. Brave girl. Not like cowardly Chloe who is scared to death. Chloe wanted children. She craved children. She sometimes thought about her and Jack married and living in a little house together with babies. It wasn't very realistic. She wasn't Jack's type. She wasn't anybody's type. Probably would have been a crappy mother anyway. But a girl's entitled to her silly little dreams. She looked past the children at the three figures at the end of the trestle. Those monsters were going to take away her dreams. Chloe stepped aside so the children can pass by. She gave them a smile that she hoped looked natural. "Don't worry, Daddy's just on the other side. You'll be safe there." Veronica smiled back and nodded. Chloe turned and watched the children walk away. 'For all the lost people trying to find their way home, Lord hear our prayer.' The sunset was so beautiful. It would probably be the last one she would ever see. She looked over the side of the trestle. Long way down. If she jumped it would be all over, there would be no torture, no blowtorch. And neither one of those two children would reach the end alive. And another part of her rebelled against suicide, it was a sin. 'Yeah, me and Gael, sticking it out to the bitter end.'

When Chloe turned back around she noticed a small red spot over her heart. A laser sight, ooooh scarreee! Right now a bullet in the heart was looking pretty darn good. She knew they weren't going to shoot her. They were going through a lot of trouble to take her alive. She wondered where the sniper was and scanned the area. A flash of light caught her attention on a low ridgeline about fifty yards to the left of the small group. She focused on the area and caught another flash. 'There he is! Camouflage face paint and mirrored sunglasses. Way to go genius! You want to look really cool while you're, uhh, hiding. He must be like a cross between Daniel Boone and Alvin York. And the way he keeps squirming around scratching himself he must have graduated the elite sniper school at Fort Benning!' She wished Jack were here, he would have eaten that guy for breakfast. She slowly moved on to the three guys waiting for her. She wished she were more heroic. Buffy would have creamed these guys. Xena would do that yipping thing with the flips and toasted them. Modesty Blaise would have some clever plan worked up with Willie Garvin to take them out. She was just a geek. She didn't know how to fight. 'Without my brains I'm nothing. Well your brains aren't going to get you off this trestle.'

Chloe made sure the children were safe before she moved among the bad guys. Three of them, all young, white and muscular, one of them had a tattoo on his cheek of a swastika with the words "White Power" over it. Now the dummy is probably wondering why he can't get a job at MacDonald's. A second one was bald with a goatee, the third had a rather thick reddish blond beard. She decided to think of them as

Tat-face, Chromedome, and Whiskers. Chromedome searched her then Whiskers and Tat-face. She had been patted down earlier by Peter who had done a professional job but these guys seemed more interested in groping her private parts than searching for weapons or devices. By the time Tat-face finished with her the sniper had arrived and decided to search her for good measure. "Where's your laptop?" Chromedome asked.

Did they think she was hiding it under her skirt? "Home," she answered. These super geniuses must have just figured out that she didn't bring it. "You never asked for the laptop."

"What do we do now?" Tat-face whined.

"We got her, that's all that's important. The boss will get us the rest!" Whiskers answered.

They threw a cloth bag over her head and handcuffed her before leading her away. She was loaded in the back of what felt like a van and driven away. She twisted her hands until she got her finger on her wrist. Her heart was racing. 'Calm down Chloe, concentrate, get into The Zone, don't think about the blowtorch. Stay calm.' Chloe slipped into The Zone. Her heart slowed. 75 beats a minute. ' Count the pulses. One, two, three, four…' The guys in the van didn't speak much. They mentioned that they weren't through with that God Damned traitor Mueller. Later they laughed about how the babysitter screamed and begged for her life. Rage rose inside Chloe and her heart rate increased. 'No, stay calm! 2676, 2677,2678…' The van stayed in the back roads. She couldn't hear any traffic noises that would indicate an interstate. '3750, 3751, 3752.' Eventually the van slowed down to a stop and she heard the doors open. '3914, about 52 minutes.' The ride felt like winding hill roads. Figure an average speed of 40 to 45 mph, they must have traveled around 34 to 40 miles from the trestle. She didn't know if this would be relevant but as an analyst she catalogued all information never knowing what might be vital. It was quiet, must be a rural area. She was standing on pavement. A road or parking lot, she heard a strange sounding bird. 'Don't know anything about birds, irrelevant.' A train whistle off to her left about half a mile away. Possible escape route, remember that. The dull thrum of a diesel engine, possibly a generator.

They led her into a door and pulled the bag off her head. It looked like a large industrial building of some kind, abandoned and dusty. Temporary lights had been rigged. As she looked around they removed her handcuffs. As Chloe rubbed her wrists she realized that removing the handcuffs was actually an insult. They weren't afraid of her. She couldn't fight four men at once and they probably wanted her to try. This was the nightmare she'd had since childhood. Helpless and surrounded by monsters. The man with the mirrored sunglasses who she was thinking of as Shades took her left arm and manhandled her into another room. Sitting behind a long folding table was a fifth man. He had long wavy blond hair that framed a strong handsome face. The type of man that looked out from the covers of dozens of romance novels she had around the apartment. Chloe would have thought he was pretty hot if she didn't keep thinking of a sixteen year old girl in the basement. He looked her over with cold, cruel blue eyes then nodded at Shades. Chloe gritted her teeth as Shades pulled out a large Bowie knife and began cutting her clothes off. In less than a minute she was nude. 'Well, I didn't hate the dress that much,' She thought. She knew what they were doing. Stripping the prisoner dehumanizes her and makes her feel vulnerable. It was an old technique. She did feel more vulnerable so that part worked but for dehumanizing, as far as she was concerned she was the only human in the building. Her first instinct was to hunch over and try to cover herself as much as she could but that's just what these animals wanted so she forced herself to stand tall with her hands on her hips. 'Take a good look slimeballs!' she thought. Guys had seen her naked before, not very many guys but, guys. She stepped to the table where the long haired man she dubbed Goldilocks sat and kept her thoughts to herself as the taunts and catcalls washed over her, 'Yeah, I haven't shaved my legs in a few days Chromdome, yeah that is freakin hilarious. Oh and my breasts are a bit small Whiskers, I kind of like them that way. No Tat-face, I don't need a boob job.' Chloe scowled at Goldilocks, "This isn't going to work."

He gave her a thin smile, "What?"

"This," she gestured at herself, "I'm not ashamed of my body."

He grinned "Oh, an exhibitionist eh?"

"No," she said in her talking to idiots voice, "You're the one insisting on the exhibition, not me."

He poured out a glass of water from the pitcher, "Here, have some water." She eyed the glass suspiciously. "I assure you it's not poison, if we wanted to poison you we wouldn't have to be so subtle."

"Fine!" She picked up the glass and drank it.

"So Chloe, you prefer I call you Chloe don't you?" He poured out another glass of water.

"I prefer you call me Agent O'Brian or Ms. O'Brian." She drank the water.

His eyes darkened with anger, "How about if I just call you Bitch!"

Chloe shrugged "Fine, why not? Everyone else does." She really had to go pee.

Goldilocks poured out another glass of water. "We're lucky to have you Bitch, we were going to do this with the Chinaman in Boston but this is even better."

"The who?"

"The Chinaman, Robert Lee, but you're even better. Drink some more water, it's very good."

"No thanks," Robert E. Lee was Chinese? All these years of phone calls and e-mails and she didn't know. She didn't really care but it seemed important to these guys. Probably white supremacists. That would tie in with Tat-face's tattoo.

"I insist!" Chromedome seems to have brought a cattle prod in from somewhere, he brandished it in her face.

"Well, since you asked so nicely." She drank down the water, the pressure on her bladder increased.

Goldilocks poured out another glass. "Here, have some more."

Chloe crossed her arms "Look! I know what you're trying to do." She said in an irritated voice. "You're going to keep feeding me water until I piddle on the floor. I'm supposed to feel really ashamed and degraded. Then I'm supposed to get all psychologically vulnerable. Your buddies over there will have a good laugh and tell some tinkle jokes that I'm sure will be very mature and sophisticated but you're going to pretend to be really mad at me for peeing all over your nice floor and punish me as if you weren't going to do it anyway. Now we can stand around playing silly games or you can tell me what you want!"

Goldilocks looked angry, it was obvious that the interview wasn't going the way he wanted. "OK Bitch, what we want you to get us is the Sigma File!"

Chloe took a sharp breath, "Never heard of it."

"Permit me to refresh your memory. It is a list of all of America's undercover agents around the world. We should be able to sell individual names to interested parties. It would be worth tens of millions of dollars."

Chloe had never seen the Sigma File. She never wanted to see it. It was beyond Top Secret. Only two or three people in the whole world have ever seen it and the President wasn't one of them. It not only had the identities and aliases but also escape routes for who knows how many agents in hostile foreign governments and terrorist groups. Some of them had been in place for decades. Giving up the list would not only cost the lives of the agents but also countless lives of people killed in attacks that could have been prevented. It would be a crushing blow to the United States and her allies and make the world suck even more than it does now. "Well genius, as soon as I was reported missing they canceled all my access codes. I couldn't get in if I wanted to."

"Oh but you designed the system. I'm sure you could break in if you really wanted to. Am I right?" Chloe remained silent. "If you don't say anything I will assume I am right."

"You can assume anything you like."

"With the money we will rebuild our organization that Mueller destroyed. Don't think we're through with him or his family. We trusted him as a brother and he betrayed us and everything we stand for. We were decimated. Dozens of us were killed or arrested!"

Chloe patted her naked body, "Sorry, I don't seem to have a hankie on me."

"You think it's amusing! He sold us out like Judas sold Jesus!"

"So now you're like Jesus?"

"Closer than you know! One of the greatest lies in history was that Jesus was some kind of Jewish hippie when our historians and theologians have proved he was a pure Nordic Aryan warrior as were most of his disciples. THE ONLY JEW WAS JUDAS!"

Chloe's nut-o-meter was starting to move off the scale. This was going to be bad.

They locked Chloe in a wire equipment cage with a dirty old mattress, a jug of water, a loaf of white bread, and a bucket for sanitary purposes. They didn't give her any clothes. So she sat on the mattress hugging her legs. If she was more heroic she could pick the padlock and sneak out. Unfortunately she didn't know the first thing about picking locks. For some reason Goldilocks had a large digital clock hung up where she could see it. They also had a nylon line with the bitter end strung through an eye splice making a loop and run through a pulley in the overhead. She didn't like the looks of that. She also didn't like the blowtorch sitting on the table in the corner. Most of the equipment looked new. They must have bought it after flying in from Boston. Off in the distance she could hear another train whistle. If only she could signal the engineer somehow! Maybe a flashing light or something, it was no use. The engineer probably wouldn't notice if she burned the building down. All it did was tantalize her with the thought of freedom.

At ten o'clock they opened the cage and led her to the rope. Tat-face and Whiskers held her down while Shades slipped the loop over her ankles and Chromedome hoisted her up and tied off the rope leaving her hanging upside down. As the blood rushed to her head Goldilocks stepped up to her. "Are you going to give us the Sigma File?"

"No! Who are you anyway?"

He smirked "I'm your worst nightmare."

"Umm no, that would be Octopus Head."

Goldilocks smirk faded as he stepped back and flicked two fingers. Tat-face and Chromedome approached with leather belts as Whiskers came up with the cattle prod. Chloe's eyes widened and her heart started pounding. 'This is gonna suck.' She thought, 'Who are these guys anyway?'

CTU 

"Reich Reborn," Bill Buchanan declared. "A particularly vicious Nazi splinter group. Amelia King isn't the first civilian they've killed with a blowtorch. Mueller infiltrated the group nineteen months ago and remained an active member until about five months ago when it was broken up in a series of raids by CTU-Boston and Boston PD. They were planning to overwhelm the city with simultaneous truck bombings. Think Oklahoma City times twenty. Only a handful escaped. Five days ago this white Dodge van registered to Larry and Ruth Weber was stolen from long term parking at the airport just an hour after a flight from Boston arrived. Security cameras showed three known members of Reich Reborn leaving that flight. Carl Baum, John Snow, and Richard Hardt." His phone rang and Bill picked it up. "Buchanan."

"Curtis here, I've interviewed Dr. Palani, she confirmed that Chloe arrived at her house between 12:15 and 12:30 where they had a conversation that is none of our damned business. She confirms that Chloe was in her house when we contacted her and that she left alone at about a quarter to three after asking Dr. Palani to attend Agent Hollister's funeral. She didn't see Chloe get into her car and doesn't know how her purse ended up in the bushes."

"Sir," Shari interrupted, "I've got a call from Agent Mueller. He's on his way in with his children."

Chloe lay huddled on the dirty mattress shivering. She wanted to be brave and take the beating without a sound but they just kept hitting her and poking her with that damned cattle prod. At first she started whimpering and then she started screaming. Her body was crisscrossed with welts. She poked one with a finger and hissed. She knew now what the clock was for. Every hour they were going to take her out and beat on her for ten minutes. Just thirty-five minutes until they do it again. The next time was going to be worse. Her skin was now super sensitive, every time it was going to get worse until she became a traitor.


	4. Mine To Give

**Mine To Give**

**Monsters Chapter 4**

Disclaimer: I don't own 24. If I did Jack and Chloe would be together and Audrey would be enjoying a free trip to China.

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Three more times they had taken Chloe out to the rope and three times they beat on flesh already raw and bruised. Chloe was somewhat familiar with torture. They did it at CTU in extreme circumstances except they usually used Torture Juice tm. She huddled on the mattress sipping on the water jug. Goldilocks had ordered them to stay away from the head and arms. They didn't want to damage their hacker. 'Gee this job sucks,' she thought. "I mean it really sucks.' She tried to remember herself as a young graduate fresh from the university with a world of possibilities ahead of her. So many companies she could have applied to, Microsoft, Pixar, Apple, among others. All offering a great deal of money. So why would she bypass them for a relatively low paying government job? A dull cough made her body wrack with pain. Patriotism, resentment against terrorists, a need to protect people, it would only be for a few years. Besides it's not dangerous, it's only office work. She wouldn't actually have to go out in the field. Chloe looked up at the clock, eighteen more minutes. 'I guess I did some good work. Saved some lives, helped some people, and now it's over.' She knew she couldn't give up the Sigma File no matter how bad it got. All those agents were depending on her. If she gave it up everything she fought for over the years, everything her friends died for, would be flushed down the toilet. She had to hang on no matter what they did to her.

(It hurts so much)

CTU 

Curtis Manning glared at the man on the other side of the table. "There's no way in Hell I'm letting you out of this room! You kidnapped a federal agent! You're facing twenty years and if we don't get Chloe back alive I'm going to see to it that you're charged with murder! Do you have any idea what these people are capable of!"

"I know exactly what these people are capable of! I was one of them for over a year. I had to do things to maintain my cover. Unforgivable things. I had to do whatever I could to get my kids away from them. I am fully responsible for what happed to Agent O'Brian and that's why I have to help get her back! I'm an expert on Reich Reborn. I know more about them than anyone else. I know how they think. You've got to let me help!"

Bill Buchanan pulled Curtis away. "We need his expertise. I'll see to it that at least four agents are with him at all times. We'll have to use every resource we can to get Chloe back."

Curtis glared at Mueller, "OK, but Chloe happens to be a good friend of mine, this isn't over. You might be surprised at how many friends she has here."

Chromedome and Tat-Face were laughing and joking as they dragged Chloe back to the equipment cage and dropped her on the mattress. She immediately curled up into a fetal position while they shut and locked the gate. It was her ninth session with the rope.

(God it hurts so much)

'My friends at CTU will find me somehow.' She thought.

(You don't have any friends at CTU, not really; they all think you're a bitch)

'It doesn't matter what they think, we support each other.'

(People disappear all the time. They don't know where to look)( They just keep hitting and hitting)

"Is this what you're going through Jack?" She whispered, "I hope not. I hope your evil bastards are nicer than my evil bastards. Stay safe Jack. I love you."

(Jack doesn't love you, he loves Audrey)( Oh dear God it hurts)

'I know, it's OK, Audrey's a good woman.'

(Jack will never love you, you're too weird, not pretty enough)( Can't take it anymore)

'It doesn't matter.'

(And you're a coward. You're afraid of that rope out there. You're afraid of that clock. You're afraid of the blowtorch. You're afraid they'll keep hitting you. You're afraid you'll become a traitor. Jack could never love a coward)

"It doesn't matter."

(No one will ever love you)

"IT DOESN'T MATTER!"

Across the room Tat-face and Chromedome looked up from their card game at Chloe then they both laughed and resumed playing. In the distance she could hear another train whistle.

(Can't stand it)

Chloe was soaking wet. During her thirteenth session on the rope she fainted so someone threw a bucket of icy cold water on her to revive her. The monsters didn't want her to miss anything. Her throat was raw and sore from screaming.

(So cold)

There was something stuck on Chloe's arm. She picked it off and looked at it. It was a wet dead leaf. 'Must have got the water from a stream. Must be a stream nearby.' More information to process.

(Hurts so much)

'I don't know how much more of this I can take.'

(Just give them what they want)

'No, I won't betray my country. Besides, when they get what they want they'll just use the blowtorch.'

(No they won't, you're too valuable to kill. You can do false I.D.s , money laundering, anything they want)

'Yeah, I'm sure they're very nice to their pets.'

(You'll be alive. You can help them)

'And the next time they kill some kid I can prove my loyalty by holding the blowtorch. I won't become a monster.'

(It won't be that bad)( hurts to breath)

'They want to make me a monster like Saunders. Stephen Saunders was a good man, an MI-6 agent. A patriot. The monsters got him and tortured him. They kept torturing him until he turned into a monster. That's what they want to do with me. They want monster Chloe to be their own pet hacker.'

Chloe poured some water from the jug onto her hand and wiped it on her eye. She did it again until the dried blood cleared away letting her open the eye again. She had done twenty sessions on the rope and she couldn't imagine anyone could hurt this much as she lay on the mattress gasping.

(Hurts to breath)

Was this what the rest of her life was going to be like? Getting beat on day after day, year after year? She suddenly thought of the old P.O.W. from her film. She hoped he was alright and had a good life with a family and grandkids.

(Just give up. Give them what they want and they'll stop)

'I…can't….they depend on…..me.'

(Sooner or later everyone breaks)( agony)

'I….won't….break.'

(Everyone breaks eventually, might as well get it over with)

'People will….die.'

(You held out as long as you could, no one will think any less of you)

'I….won't do….it.'

(You can't win)

'I win….every time….I say…no'

(You can't win)

'I win every time I say no.'

'I win every time I say no.'

'I win every time I say no.'

Chloe heard them unlocking the gate to her cage.

'I win every time I say no.'

'I win every time I say no.'

Whiskers and Shades grabbed her arms and dragged her to the rope.

'I win every time I say no.'

She didn't see who put the loop on her ankles and hoisted her up

'I win every time I say no.'

Goldilocks is talking to her, asking something about the Sigma File.

"No!" 'I win, hooray I win!'

Then the screaming resumed.

Everything hurts so much

Chloe could feel her will breaking down. After twenty-three sessions on the rope she could only take so much. It was never ending agony. She just lay limp on the mattress and could just barely move. 'That's… it….. I give…. up. I…. quit.'

"We're CTU! We don't quit until it's over!" a familiar voice shouted.

Chloe raised her head "Jack! Is that you Jack!" Across the room Whiskers looked up from his girlie magazine and looked at her. He glanced around the room then grinned and returned to the magazine.

(No it's not Jack. Jack's dead)( agony)

'Jack's not….. dead!…. He's not!'

(They tortured Jack to death and dumped him in a shallow grave somewhere. You were too lazy and stupid to help him)( Just want to die)

'No, he's…… out there……. somewhere alive.'

(No he's dead. You were going to waste your life chasing a ghost)

"No."

(You were going to waste your life chasing a silly little girlie dream )(Oh dear God it hurts)

'Its my…. life.'

(Not for long. The monsters are going to take your life from you)( So cold)

"No one takes my life from me but I lay it down on my own. I have the power to lay it down and the power to take it up." Declared a strong male voice.

Chloe looked around, "Who said that!" She fell into a fit of coughing. 'Oh yeah…..Jesus said that…..It's in…the Gospel…..of Matthew.'

(No it's John)

'Whatever! Jesus is….here and he….brought Jack!'

(No, you're just going insane, that's all)(Hard to breath)

'He's trying….to tell….me….something.' Chloe pushed herself to a sitting position, it took nearly all her remaining strength and left her gasping. 'They can't….kill…me. I chose to….give my life.'

(That's nuts)(Hurts to move)

'No I chose…to come….here. I could have pushed…..the panic….button. I could…have gotten away. They can't….take my life….It's mine to give and….I chose to…..give it. They didn't take….my body and beat it…I chose to give….it. I knew the risks….working at CTU…. My life is….my gift.'

(You're going to die)

'I chose here… They came….from Boston for me! They….set everything…. up here for me. They kidnapped….the Mueller children for….me They killed….Amy for me! They're waiting for…me! I'm in control!'

"Change the rules." Chloe knew that voice, the old P.O.W.

(You can't win)

'These guys are losers! They're Nazis. The Nazis had their big chance to conquer the world in the 1940's and they blew it! My Grampa kicked their butts halfway across Europe and he's ninety-two! These guys were losers decades before they were born! How big a loser do you have to be for that to happen?'

"No one takes my life from me but I lay it down on my own."

'Thank you Jesus! I heard you the first time. Now shut up I'm trying to think!'

(So scared)

'I'm smarter than they are. These guys are cruel but that's all they'll ever be. They lost in '45 and now they're stuck on the fringes of society forever. They're stupid. I've been up against the greatest terrorist masterminds in the world. Marwan, Saunders, Logan, Henderson, Bierko even Tony Almeida for a little while; wait, scratch Logan, he's not exactly a mastermind, but the rest of them were pretty smart. These guys are stupid.

(They can still kill you)

'Maybe, but I'm still in control and they're still stupid! Gotta think here. I'm in control. Gotta change the rules.'

She heard the jingle of keys as Chromedome unlocked the padlock. Shades and Tat-face took Chloe's arms and dragged her out. She was too weak to even pretend to fight.

(Can barely move)

They dragged her to the rope where Shades tightened the loop around the raw flesh of her ankles.

'Smarter than they are.'

Chloe gave a short scream as they hoisted her up sending a fresh wave of agony through her battered legs.

(Oh God it hurts so much)

'I'm in control.'

She saw Shades and Tat-Face pick up the belts as Chromedome got the cattle prod.

(So scared)

'Change the rules!'

"STOP IT! STOP IT! PLEASE PLEASE STOP! I'LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT! I'LL GIVE YOU THE SIGMA FILE! I'LL GIVE YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT! JUST DON'T HIT ME ANYMORE! PLEASE PLEASE STOP HITTING ME!"


	5. Cruelty and Kindness

**Cruelty and Kindness**

**Monsters Chapter 5**

They gently lowered Chloe to the floor while Tat-Face trotted through the door to get Goldilocks, he must have been napping in another room because he took about ten minutes to walk in. Chloe was lying on her side on the dirty concrete floor when Goldilocks stood over her shaking his head. "Chloe, Chloe, Chloe." He said somewhat sadly, "You're a mess. Here let me clean you up." Chloe glared up at him, her grimy face streaked with tears and dried blood then nodded.

Goldilocks ordered the bucket of water heated up then gently and tenderly gave Chloe a sponge bath. "Chloe you can call me John, let me know if there's anything you need." Chloe gritted her teeth as he gently wiped her raw tender flesh with warm soapy water. By now pain was a part of her life but she had to be clean. "This is all your own fault Chloe," he told her with a soft voice. "If you hadn't have been so stubborn we could have finished this a long time ago without so much pain, I never really wanted to hurt you."

'You seemed to be enjoying it at the time,' she thought. Chloe was working on a plan where she could think of three possible outcomes. Outcome A; Chloe lives, all the bad guys die, Chloe does the happy dance on the bad guys graves. Chloe liked Outcome A. It gave her warm fuzzy feelings inside. Outcome B; Chloe dies, the bad guys die, Chloe does the happy dance in Heaven while all the bad guys burn in Hell. Chloe didn't like Outcome B very much. Outcome C; the bad guys figure out what Chloe's up to, the bad guys live, Chloe dies, probably very slowly by inches. The bad guys are disappointed that they didn't get the Sigma File but they learn to live with it. Chloe didn't like Outcome C at all. There was no Outcome D because she wasn't going to give up the Sigma File under any circumstances.

"I have to put some antiseptic on your cuts. I'm sorry but this is going to sting." As John dabbed the wounds Chloe jerked and whimpered a bit and John smiled. He wasn't really sorry. He enjoyed hurting people. He enjoyed it a lot and he felt Agent O'Brian deserved everything he did to her. He had gone into a rage when he discovered Mueller was transferring to LA after he had spent so much time and money planning to use him to get the Chinaman but after spending even more money for information on the Chinaman's counterpart in LA John Snow exulted. Chloe O'Brian was a gift from God proving his divine plan for the domination of the white race. Unlike the Chinaman, O'Brian was racially pure making her a prime candidate for conversion. She had set up the network for CTU and was well regarded as a genius. Best of all for John's plans she was also known to be a rude hostile bitch with a history of insubordination and disciplinary problems who had been fired in the past and had been rumored to have been arrested on different occasions. She apparently had very few friends, no boy friend, and no family in the area except an ex-husband she rarely spoke to. Someone who probably hated her job and hated her coworkers. One of the first steps in John's plans was to cut the subject off from her support base but apparently O'Brian didn't have much of a support base to begin with. She was probably also starved for affection. John Snow was a handsome man who knew the effect he had on women. He would destroy Chloe and rebuild her in his own image.

**CTU**

"Richard Hardt is their computer expert," Agent Mueller told the group gathered in the briefing room. The screen showed surveillance photos of a bald man with a goatee and one of him as younger man, clean shaven with a crew cut dressed in an Air Force uniform. "Hardt was given a dishonorable discharge from the Air Force after assaulting an officer who confronted him for attempting to start a Ku Klux Klan chapter at Nellis Air Force Base. He is very short tempered but good with computers. Not as good as O'Brian but he could probably be able to tell if she's trying to pull a fast one. Since they must have taken O'Brian for her skills, he is a key figure.

The screen switched to surveillance photos of a dark haired man with mirrored sunglasses. "Justin Rose claims to be a professional hit man with sixty seven kills. I personally think that's a load of crap but I can confirm he's killed at least three people. He can be one vicious bastard."

The screens switched to police mug shots of a man with a reddish blond beard and a young man with a swastika tattooed on his cheek. "Carl Baum and Michael Mead are basically dumb muscle. Both had served prison terms for assault and battery. I don't know either one very well."

"The leader is John Snow." The screen showed a police mug shot of a young teenaged skinhead. "This is from his only arrest at 17 for assault with a deadly weapon. Since then he has let his hair grow out." The picture switched to a security camera photo from the airport. "He was fourth in command of Reich Reborn before the raids and is the senior member still at large. He is a bit of a ladies man and is extremely vain. He also considers himself to be an expert psychologist although his education consists entirely of what he was able to read in the prison library. I believe he is planning to brainwash Agent O'Brian into joining Reich Reborn. He has probably tortured her but won't cause any permanent damage because he wants to use her. But if he thinks she's trying to double cross him he won't hesitate to kill her."

'At least they gave me clothes,' Chloe thought. She was now dressed in a dirty, baggy, gray sweat suit that some thoughtful person had gone through the trouble of pre-sweating for her. It was damp and smelled like a locker room full of beer. Normally she would be thinking Eww Yuck! But at the moment she was just glad she didn't have to see her battered body anymore. Wait, come to think of it she'd seen Tat-Face wearing this. 'Ewww Yuck! Oh Dear God I hope he wore underpants!' Mike! She had to remember to call Tat-Face Mike. These guys all introduced themselves to her and seemed to be real chummy all of a sudden.

Whiskers, no wait, Carl came in with her order. A double cheeseburger with curly fries and a large Coke. She normally drank diet but right now she was on survival mode and needed calories. Chloe sat at the table and began to open the sack when she felt Goldilock's hand grasp her shoulder and squeeze the welts and bruises hard enough to make her eyes water. "Say thank you to Carl!"

"Thanks," She muttered.

He squeezed harder "Like you mean it!"

"Thank you Carl!"

John relaxed the pressure "See Chloe, that wasn't so hard. You just need to learn proper manners."

"Whatever."

John wrapped his arm around her head and pressed his thumb into a nerve cluster below Chloe's ear. Pain raced through her head. "Not whatever! Say I need to learn proper manners!"

"I need to learn proper manners!"

John released her. "You'll find that life is simpler if you just learn to act like a proper lady."

Chloe dug into the cheeseburger. 'They're training me like a dog,' she thought. They want me to be a good little doggie and obey them. Well I can play along for a while. I can be a good doggie. I just won't be a nice doggie. Soon they'll find out what the word bitch really means.'

After her supper they led her back to the cage. The dirty mattress now had clean sheets, a pillow, and a comforter. It looked good, Chloe was weary and exhausted . She could hardly remember the last time she had slept. Suddenly John clicked his heels together and brought his hand up in a Nazi salute. "Heil Hitler!"

The other four men also snapped to attention and saluted "Heil Hitler!"

Chloe just watched sullenly. Then , without warning, John rammed his fist into her diaphragm knocking the wind out of her. Chloe bent over whooping, trying to inhale but she couldn't. John grabbed her hair and pulled her head back. "You will show proper respect for the Fuhrer!" He screamed. "Now let's try it again!"

They gave Chloe a moment to recover then John snapped off another salute. "Heil Hitler!"

The others saluted, "Heil Hitler!"

Chloe stuck her hand in the air, "Heil Hitler." she muttered.

John gave her a backhand across the face, "Louder! With more enthusiasm!"

Chloe snapped a salute "Heil Hitler! She shouted.

John then gently took Chloe in his arms and kissed her forehead. He held her head to his chest and softly stroked her hair. " There now. That wasn't so bad. It will become easier every time you do it. I think in time we can become really good friends."

Hate boiled up inside Chloe but she tried to remain calm. This was the same way her Daddy used to comfort her. HOW DARE HE! Only two men have held her this way. One out of love and now another out of hate. She understood the technique. Cruelty and kindness, the twin pillars of brainwashing. Punishment and reward. She would make small compromises here and there to avoid punishment. Each compromise would cut her further off from who she was and change her into who they wanted her to be. The big one would be the Sigma File. If she ever gave it up she could never go home again. She would be cut off from her old life and depend more and more on these losers. It wasn't going to happen. She had to keep anchored to who she was. 'I am Agent Chloe O'Brian of the Counter Terrorist Unit.' she thought. 'I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of The United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. These are my enemies. They are not my friends and they never will be. They tied a sixteen year old girl to a chair and forced her to watch while they slowly burned the flesh off the bones of her hands and feet. They deserve to die. I am in control.'

She decided to think happy thoughts. Outcome A. A weed strewn potter's field with five freshly dug graves marked with metal stakes. Chloe is out there in her shimmering blue silk dress. The one she kept in her closet and never wore because only someone beautiful should wear it. She is also wearing her high topped sneakers. They don't really go with the dress but Chloe doesn't want to destroy her fantasy with uncomfortable shoes. Old Johnnie Goldilocks grave is the center one and she is twirling and dancing joyfully on top of it. The light catches her dress like a glittering waterfall as the dirt clods are crushed and scattered beneath her feet. Her movements are not the awkward clumsy ones she has made on her rare attempts to dance but are as graceful as a swan. It wasn't very realistic. Their relatives would probably claim the bodies and bury them in different locations. Maybe even cremate some of them but a girl's entitled to her silly little dreams. She is very happy dancing away on top of the grave.

As John gently stroked Chloe's hair he looked down at her face. Her eyes were closed and she was smiling. Then John smiled, 'This will be easier than I thought.'

Chloe was dressed in the black uniform of a World War II SS officer. She walked slowly through CTU headquarters mowing down everyone with her machine gun. She enjoyed the shocked look on Edgar's face as the bullets hit his chest. Tony and Michelle both had their pistols out shooting at her. Don't they ever watch horror movies? Everyone knows that guns don't work on monsters. Her machine gun scatters their brains across the floor. Then Jack steps out. He has his hands out showing her that he is unarmed. "Chloe! Please! Why are you doing this?" Chloe laughs as she shoots him in the gut. He falls to the floor and looks up at her pleading. "Why Chloe Why?" She brings her gun up to his face.

Chloe woke up with a start. She was in the cage. She heard another train whistle in the distance and looked up at the clock. 5:38 AM. She will not become a monster no matter what. She will remain true to who she is. At least she got some REM sleep in. She was going to need it.

Breakfast was ham and eggs with toast and orange juice. Apparently they were getting more comfortable with her and were perhaps beginning to think of Chloe as being one of them. After breakfast John led them in their Heil Hitler salutes and Chloe responded as enthusiastically as the rest. John smiled at Chloe and she smiled back. 'So you like Hitler,' she thought, 'If my plans work out the way I want you might get a chance to meet him in a couple of days. If you do tell him I said 'Hi!'

John and Rick led her into the other room where they had set up a computer work station on the long folding table in the center of the room. Chloe scowled at it arms crossed tightly across her chest. "Do they still make these?"

John looked over at Rick, "I was told that this was some of the best equipment available."

"Who told you that? Thomas Edison? Benjamin Franklin? This is completely inadequate."

Now Rick scowled. "Are you saying you can't hack into CTU with this?"

"I can try, of course I can try fighting a battleship with a BB gun. I'm just not likely to succeed." She then looked over at John , "And I do want to please you in every way John." she said struggling mightily to keep the tone of sarcasm out of her voice.

"What do you need?"

"A supercomputer, there's one at the University of California, there are some others in the area at various companies."

"Out of the question! There's too big a chance we will be discovered and captured."

'My thoughts exactly,' Chloe thought. 'Oh well, it was worth a shot.' "I will make up a list of the stuff I need. Now lets have a look at your satellite dish."

The equipment Chloe demanded was very expensive and top of the line. About two thirds of it was completely unnecessary or redundant but these guys apparently had more money than sense. Besides , in the unlikely event that she survived this mess she might talk Bill into letting her keep some of it. The satellite dish was perfectly adequate so she made them get a bigger, more expensive one out of shear spite. It took another day to purchase all of it which she needed to recover more from her beatings. She didn't want to waste too much time here. Jack was in trouble and she didn't have time to lollygag around here with this gang of homicidal maniacs when she had work to do.

At last they had things set up the way she wanted. Rick set up an untraceable link and would watch over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't sending any secret messages or any other tricks. John was going to sit behind her about thirty feet away with a pistol. There would be no way she could get to him without being shot. She hoped they wouldn't figure out what she was up to. She also hoped those chuckleheads back at CTU had actually listened to her rantings. She said a quick prayer to herself and began typing on the keyboard opening up a portal to the CTU mainframe and began entering code directly into it. Rick's eyes narrowed. "Why don't you complete a code or virus on our computer and just download the complete thing all at once."

"Because," she replied in a tone of voice people normally reserved for explaining to five year olds why they can't go to Oz on vacation. "The CTU computers have a firewall preventing outside programs or viruses from entering them. I have to put everything in manually."

"So why's your typing so ragged?"

Chloe's stomach felt like a lump of cement "Because I've had a real crappy couple of days Dickweed!"

"Dickweed! Maybe I should take you back to the rope and teach you proper respect!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! Don't take me back to the rope!"

"HA HA HA!" he laughed. "Watch your tongue Bitch!"

'I'd make a real crappy actress,' Chloe thought, 'Good thing I'm not acting.' sweat beaded her forehead.

"How long is this going to take?" John called from his chair.

"With or without the two of you chattering like monkeys?" Rick stepped forward. "Look! I can break into this super secure computer database or I can sit here and chat with the two of you but I can't do both so why don't the two of you just be quiet and stare at me while I work."

She could hear Rick laughing while she typed away. 'Yeah laugh while you still can Dickweed!' The task she was performing was like trying to do three complex tasks at once and was taxing her brain to the utmost. She only set aside a tiny corner of her mind to the man looking over her shoulder. 'Hey Dummy! Look at what I'm doing. I'm doing it right in front of you Dummy! If you weren't so dumb you'd kill me right now Dummy!'

**CTU**

Patrick McCoy was exhausted. CTU had been working around the clock trying to find Chloe O'Brian and the analysts have pretty much moved in sleeping on cots set up in empty holding cells. Patrick wasn't doing it out of love and friendship for Agent O'Brian. He couldn't stand the nagging harpy but a fellow agent was in trouble and he would do anything to rescue her or die trying. She might be an obnoxious bitch but she's our obnoxious bitch. He was half asleep when a small alarm went off on his console. He hit a few keys and looked at his screen. "Somebody's using O'Brians access codes!" he shouted. Karen Hayes arrived in less than a minute and looked at the screen.

"What's she trying to do?"

"It looks like she's trying to break into our secure data base."

Karen saw Bill coming up, "Worst case scenario, Bill, they've turned Chloe and now she's working for them."

Bill looked at the screen, "I don't think so."

"Well it looks to me like she's trying very hard to break into our most sensitive files."

"That's just it. She's trying very hard. Chloe's got enough tricks and back ways she doesn't have to try very hard. If she really wanted in we wouldn't know about it until it was too late. It's like she's trying to smash in the castle's front gate with a battering ram when she knows the back door is open and unguarded. She's trying to get in but she wants us to know she's trying to get in. Try to figure out what she's up to."

Patrick stared and the code being typed in. The typing was pretty ragged and sporadic unlike Chloe's normal typing. There seemed to be a pattern to it. It seemed somewhat familiar. Then he picked it up. Chloe O'Brian insisted that all analysts in her section learn Morse Code like CTU was some kind of 19th century telegraph office. Sometimes when things were quiet she would idly tap her pen on her desk and woe to the analyst who didn't pick up the message. Patrick didn't know Morse Code, something that O'Bitchy reminded him of constantly but perhaps… "Shari, come over here and look at this." Patrick stepped back when Shari Rosenthal approached leaving her plenty of space. Shari had a reputation for being even crazier than O'Brian.

"So what am I looking at?"

"I'm thinking Morse Code."

Shari eyes narrowed then she grabbed Patrick's notepad and pen off his desk and began scribbling. A-I-N 343,

T-R-A-I-N 725, T-R-A-I-N 1315.

"Sir! We've got something. I think it's times when Chloe has seen or heard trains."

Bill stepped over to see what was going on. Shari looked up for a second from her scribbling. "Sir, all modern railroads track their trains by global positioning satellites. They keep records of where they are at all times by computer."

Bill had a faint trace of a smile "Do they now?"


	6. Pour Richard's

**Pour Richard's**

**Monsters Chapter 6**

**Disclaimer: **This is really stupid. If I owned 24 would I really be writing fan fiction about it on my sister's computer because my own ancient steam powered computer finally gave up the ghost? Well anyway I don't own it so there!

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The one thing Chloe O'Brian had that she was proud of was her brain. It was the one bright spot in what would otherwise be a dreary life. She didn't consider herself to be beautiful , or athletic, or popular. She had no musical or artistic talent, social skills, fashion sense, and very few friends. But the one thing she had was her sheer intelligence. It was the one thing that kept her life from being a worthless waste of time and the only reason someone like Jack would even consider her as a friend. She might not have been very wise, the few men she's had relationships with in the past proved that. But when it came to brainpower she'd met very few people in her life who equaled or exceeded her. As a matter of fact she considered most of the people she met to be rather stupid but learned at an early age that they don't like being told that. The man standing behind her watching her screen had a very good education and some very good computer skills but for all that she considered him to be stupid.

And at the moment her brainpower was being strained to its limits. She had to type in complex codes to a remote computer while at the same time remembering Morse code, train schedules, and other clues she dropped in. That coupled with the abuse she's gone through was giving her a splitting headache.

But right now she was in The Zone. Concentrating. No distractions. So she jumped a little when she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. She looked up at John's strong handsome face as he gently touched her cheek. She stopped typing as he leaned over and gave her a deep kiss on the lips. 'Eww gross! He's kissing me!' She considered making a grab for the .45 M1911 automatic on his hip but resisted. Speed and agility were never her strong suites and any wrestling match with Goldilocks was one she was doomed to lose. Outcome C. So she resisted her gag reflex and endured the kiss. Then he pulled away and smiled at her.

"You're doing well Chloe, Keep it up."

She suppressed the temptation to spit or wipe her mouth and gave him a smile back that she hoped didn't look too much like a grimace. "Thank you John."

He walked back to his chair , "Soon we'll be very rich Chloe. We can go anywhere we want. We can even give you those breast implants you've always wanted. Think how pretty you'll be then."

Chloe's fingers curled into fists. 'That does it!' She thought angrily, 'I'm gonna slap the fillings right out of your mouth! I'll tear your guts out and strangle you with them!' She became aware of Rick looking at her suspiciously so she flexed her fingers and wiggled them then went back to work on the keyboard. 'I bet you think you're God's gift to women with your nice hair, handsome face, and muscles. You know who I think is even hotter and sexier than you? Edgar! Yes plump geeky Edgar was way more attractive than you'll ever be. And who else? Rodney Dangerfield, Marty Feldman, Oh! And the Elephant Man! Yes! I would rather have wet sloppy sex with the Elephant Man than have you ever lay another finger on me! And why? Because they were all good decent men while you're nothing but an evil sadistic lying sack of shit wrapped up in a pretty package! I bet you even have some sad whiney story you're going to tell me about how your daddy was mean to you, your mommy never loved you and your uncle molested you. Well I don't give a shit! There's no excuse for the things you've done and I'm personally going to see you. . . Dammit! Now you got me distracted. Gotta concentrate.'

John Snow leaned back in his folding chair and smiled. He could see that his kiss flustered Chloe. She probably couldn't believe her good fortune. She was falling in love with him. He could sense it. Women did find him irresistible. Like all women all she needed was a little discipline. Normally he wouldn't waste any time on someone like Chloe but he needed her skills so he would play along. By the time he dumped her and broke her heart she wouldn't have anywhere else to go. The pain it would cause her would give him additional pleasure.

**CTU**

Shari Rosenthal was still sitting at Patrick's station scribbling ABDN IND BLDG so she wasn't able to sit in at the conference. Patrick McCoy was reading from a sheath of papers torn from his notepad. "According to O'Brian she is within a 40 mile radius of the railroad trestle where Mueller handed her over. There are 5 hostiles present with semi-automatic weapons." He did some work on his laptop. "That coupled with the train locations would put her somewhere in this shaded area." The map appeared on the large screen. Patrick paused to listen to his headset. "Shari reports that it is an abandoned industrial building near a stream. She recommends doing a thermal and electromagnetic scan on the next satellite pass and overlay with previous passes to check for new activity."

"Yes," Bill said, "That's just what we did in the Heller kidnapping. Make it so."

"Point Mugu has an unarmed Mariner drone launched and en route to the area." Audrey reported. "They will transfer control to us as soon as it reaches the target area."

"I've got a tactical team standing by." Curtis Manning declared. He was already dressed in body armor minus the helmet. "We have a helicopter prepped and ready."

"I'm going with you." Mueller stated. Manning just glared at him. "I know how short handed you are and I'm fully responsible for everything that's happened to Chloe which is why I should help get her back. She was willing to sacrifice her life for my kids. It's the only thing I can do. After that I'll take any punishment you want."

Manning glanced over at Buchanan who nodded. "Very well Mueller, go to the armory and get suited up. And you'd better hope and pray we get Chloe back alive."

Georgy Porgy Puddin Pie

Kiss the girls and make them cry

Kiss the girls and make them cry

Kiss the girls and make them die

That damned song kept playing in Chloe's head. She sensed that the words of the song were wrong somehow. She wondered if John had charmed Amy before taking her down into the basement. Maybe given her the last kiss of her life. Tat-Face brought Chloe an extra large mug of hot coffee. "Thank you very, very much for the delicious coffee Michael." Chloe said in a sickly sweet voice. Tat-Face just grunted and left the room. 'I guess I'm the only one who's supposed to be polite around here.' she thought. Chloe was starting to get worried. Even stalling as much as possible she would be able to access the Sigma File in less than an hour. Before that happened she was going to pull the plug and crash all systems. Outcome C. She then planned to charge Goldilocks hoping he would panic and shoot her through the heart but she doubted that would happen. John didn't seem the panicky type. He and Rick would probably wrestle her to the ground then it's death by slow torture and a shallow grave somewhere. 'Oh well, A crappy end to a crappy life.' she thought. 'I'm still in control. They won't get what they want. My life is mine to give.' She hoped those boneheads back at CTU had caught on to what she was doing. Probably not. No one ever listens to Chloe. Oh well, it was worth a shot. Chloe felt a sense of failure. Jack needed rescue and she failed him. Amy needed justice and she failed her. The only thing she succeeded at was rescuing the Mueller children. 'Be good,' she thought. 'Be happy. Live good lives and be good people. Make this worth it.'

**CTU**

"Sir we have a probable location!" Patrick shouted. He and Shari were sitting next to each other heads together. Closer than most people dared to sit with Shari. As Karen approached Shari looked up. "It's this place here, the Pour Richard's Cement Company. They went bankrupt in 2000. Now there's new activity and a new satellite dish."

"Zoom in on that van," Karen ordered. She squinted at the screen. "They must have swapped the plates but I recognise the old Ross Perot and Save the Whales bumper stickers. That's the Weber van. We are go!"

Shari transmitted the coordinates to various stations and caused a bustle of activity throughout the building. The tactical team scrambled to the helicopter pad. Satellite pictures of Pour Richard's appeared on several screens.

"Point Mugu has transferred control of the Mariner to CTU. Transferring telemetry to your station Shari." Audrey announced into her headphone.

"I've got it, setting up steady orbit around the target." Shari replied.

Bill Buchanan spoke to the helicopter pilot on the radio. "Hotel One, we are sending topographical maps of the area. When you get five miles from the target fly nape of the earth along the marked route and land behind this hill west of the target. We don't want them to spot us too soon. Delta team can proceed on foot from there. At Delta One's order proceed to secondary landing area in the parking lot."

"Roger."

After that all they could do was watch the screens and wait.

Chloe was getting more and more worried. Nobody seems to have gotten her message and it was looking more and more like Outcome C. Twenty minutes tops. Strangely the idea of being tortured to death didn't seem to bother her as much as it should. There wasn't anything she could do about it but accept it. Besides it was her choice not to cooperate with these idiots. She was still in control. No matter what happened she was still going to win. She just felt rather embarrassed to be killed by a pack of third rate terrorists like these guys. She wondered how they would do it. The blowtorch, more beatings, skinning alive, then she heard John's voice.

"I'm sorry if I seemed harsh to you but I've had a harsh life. My father was a cruel man and my mother never really loved me."

"Oh you poor man!" she exclaimed. 'Oh Dear God no!' she thought, 'He's going to bore me to death!'

Curtis Manning listened to Shari's voice in his earpiece as he scanned the building with his binoculars, "There's one sentry outside and five people inside. The sentry's near that tree."

"Which tree?"

"I think you're facing him. Which way are you facing?"

Curtis bit back his anger. Eye in the sky required a lot of training to do properly and Shari had never been trained. That was going to change. He made a mental note to spend next week doing extensive training and drills for all the newbies both night and day. He wished Chloe was his eye in the sky. She wasn't just good, she was magic. As he scanned the area in front of him he caught a flash of light from some bushes and focused his binoculars there. 'Oh man! Nobody's that stupid!' "Two yards to the left of that Y shaped tree." he whispered. To his right he heard the dull cough of a silenced sniper rifle. Curtis then made a hand gesture and the Delta team rose and moved swiftly and silently toward the Pour Richard's Cement Company.

From the other room Chloe heard a loud bang followed by gunfire and shouts. "Quick! Get your rifle and see what's going on!" John shouted to Rick. "I'll take care of this whore!" As Rick ran toward the door Chloe heard the distinct sound of a pistol being drawn from its holster. She grabbed the edge of the table and leaped to her feet flipping the table with all its expensive electronics over on its side. In the same movement she somersaulted over the top. A bullet caught a fold in her sweatpants as she went over the table and landed on her back on top of the monitor and keyboard. The blow to her battered back sent a shock of agony through her that nearly made her pass out. Struggling to stay conscious she rolled to her left just as two bullet holes appeared in the table where she'd just been. She immediately rolled directly behind the bullet holes just as new holes appeared where she'd just left. She rolled behind the new holes as new holes appeared in the far end of the table. Chloe then heard the clatter of an empty magazine hitting the concrete floor and look through the holes at Goldilocks as he slapped another magazine into the .45.

'Oh great! He's circling around the table to see where I am.' She tried to stand up but her foot slipped in the spilled coffee and she fell flat on her butt, feet spread apart. "Dammit! I can't even die in a dignified way." She muttered as John came around the table and aimed his Colt at her.

"What did you do Bitch!" He shrieked.

Chloe gave him a slight smile. "You can't take my life from me." She whispered and closed her eyes. The sound of the gunshot was deafening. The impact on her chest hurt, but not as much as she thought it would.

Chloe opened her eyes and looked at the bloody mess on her chest. She felt a sense of peace. "My life is my gift." Her breathing got rapid and shallow and it felt like the blood was draining from her brain. Something seemed wrong.


	7. A Good Man

**A Good Man**

**Monsters Chapter 7**

Disclaimer: I don't own 24. If I did Jack would realize that the perfect woman is right in front of him. The Fauve character is from Talk It Out by Aragothwinelfblade and used with permission from the author.

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Chloe felt rather dizzy as she sat there waiting for the next shot. She continued to stare at her bloody chest. It was all wrong. The blood spatters were wrong. She'd seen gunshot wounds before. This wasn't a shot from a .45.

When Peter Mueller had gone to the armory back at CTU he'd been delighted to find the automatic shotgun there. Most agents prefered submachine guns or pistols but Peter liked the sheer firepower of a shotgun loaded with double aught buckshot. He had a feeling this would be his final mission and he wanted to finish Reich Reborn once and for all. They had taken over a year from his life. Fourteen months away from his wife and kids. Fourteen months yelling at their stupid rallies, laughing at their foul jokes, drinking beer and watching football with men he hated. He had smashed tombstones in Jewish cemeteries and vandalized synagogues. But the worst part was what they called their "Coon hunts" where they would look for a homeless black man to beat up. The first one was Peter's initiation into Reich Reborn. He had managed to contact CTU beforehand and one of Peter's friends, Nathan Taylor, volunteered for the assignment. Peter found Nathan pushing a shopping cart near the rail yard and leaped from the car to attack him. Some of the others joined in and Nathan ended up in the hospital with both arms broken, three cracked ribs and a mild concussion. Peter knew Nathan understood why and forgave him but he could never forgive himself. And there had been other times when he had been forced to attack civilians. He had never actually killed anyone but had come close several times. He kept telling himself that breaking up the bomb plot was worth it. Saving thousands of lives was worth causing misery to dozens of innocents. Sometimes he even believed it. What really frightened him was that a small dark corner of his soul actually enjoyed it. Was he a good man pretending to be a monster or a monster pretending to be a good man? Did it make a difference? Now they wanted him to sacrifice the life of an innocent woman and he would be damned if he let that happen. After today he would probably face prison at worst or be drummed out of CTU at best but either way it ends now.

Shari had made it clear that there were two people in one room and three in another. The Delta team had tossed a flash boom grenade into the building and charged in. It was clear to Peter that Chloe wasn't in the first room so he pushed through a partially open door into a hallway. There he encountered Richard Hardt charging through with a hunting rifle. Hardt started to bring up the rifle.

"You fuckin' traitor!" he snarled.

Mueller was a hair faster and fired a load of buckshot into Hardt's chest liquefying his heart. He then heard some shots coming from another room. He charged in and saw O'Brian sitting on the floor by an overturned table in a tangle of electronics with John Snow standing over her, his back to Peter, raising a .45 pistol. Without hesitation Mueller raised the shotgun and fired a load of buckshot into the back of Snow's head. He saw the heavy pistol fly from Snow's lifeless hand and hit Chloe in the chest causing her whole body to jerk. It then bounced off onto the floor by her left knee. Peter quickly scanned the area for additional threats then rushed over to Chloe. Her hair, face, and especially her chest had been sprayed liberally with the contents of Snow's head and she was looking down at the bloody front of her sweatshirt mumbling something to herself. She looked up in suprise as Peter knelt next to her then she noticed Snow's body.

"Thanks Peter, you're still a jerk."

"So are you, Chloe."

He pulled up the sweatshirt and grunted in suprise at the bruises and welts. This woman was in a lot of pain but he found no bullet wounds. He checked her back for good measure then felt her head. She seemed on the brink of fainting but was otherwise OK. He wrapped her right arm around his neck and lifted her up to her feet. "Let's get out of here."

"A bandit has the package," Shari's voice said over his headphone.

"Negative! Delta Six has the package!" he shouted into his transmitter.

"If you're Delta Six then who's in the hallway?"

Peter pushed Chloe behind him and brought up the shotgun.

"Delta One is in the hallway! Hallway is clear!" Curtis shouted, he definitely had to run those drills next week.

"I have six live bodies. Sound off." Shari stated.

"Delta One," Curtis said.

"Delta Two."

"Delta Four."

"Delta Five."

"Delta Six," Peter said, "With package."

"That's six," Shari said, "Stand down, the party's over."

Chloe immediatly sensed something wrong. "Delta Three! Where's Delta Three?"

Curtis stepped up, "I'm sorry Chloe."

"Who is he? I need to see him."

As they entered the other room Chloe pulled away from Mueller and rushed past the bullet riddled bodies of Tat-Face and Whiskers to the still form of a man in CTU body armor. He had a battledressing on his throat but it was too little, too late. She saw his face and recognized him from his file. Francisco (Frankie) Gonzales, AKA Gonzo, Age 27, two terms in the Marines. Joined CTU because he was homesick for LA. Never married, no kids which is somewhat tragic in itself. Two years in Iraq, one year in Afganistan, only to die in the hills of southern California. It's suprising how much you can know about a man you've never actually met.

"He died saving me," Chloe said in a soft voice, tears welling in her eyes. "He was a good man and he died because of me."

"Don't say that Chloe," Curtis told her. "He died because of them, not you. You had nothing to do with his death."

"It's never going to end," Chloe muttered. "I'm going to have to buy another black dress because it's never going to end."

"Get on that stretcher Chloe and we'll get you out of here."

"I don't need a damned stretcher! I can walk just fine!"

"We don't know what they've done to you! You could go into shock! Now get on the stretcher!"

Chloe pulled herself up to full height in her blood stained sweat suit and bare feet, crossed her arms, and glared up Agent Manning's nostrils. "I don't take orders from you Curtis!"

"This is a field operation! I'm the senior field agent! That means everybody takes orders from me! Now get on the stretcher O'Brian and that's an order!"

"OK! Fine! I'm getting on the stretcher! See, I'm lying on the stretcher! I'm not even complaining about how tight this gorilla is strapping me in! Happy?"

"Yes, very, Peterson, Fuchida, stay here and police the area. Now let's get Chloe home."

As they carried Chloe out to the helicopter she felt the sunshine for the first time since the rail trestle an age ago. The sun was setting behind the hill to the west. It was all so beautiful.

**CTU Two hours later**

Chloe was pacing back and forth in CTU's sickbay speaking on the landline. "Thanks a bunch, I'll owe you big time for this. I'll send them over as soon as I get back to my station. Bye for now." She hung up the phone and looked around the room. It had an awful lot of flowers for someone as thoughly disliked as she was. Then the phone rang and she snatched it up.

"O'Brian, wadya want?"

"Bill Buchanan, Director Hayes and I need to see you about your after action report. Can we come over?"

"Just you Bill, not Karen."

"Why don't you want to see Karen?"

"I don't trust her. Come alone."

She hung up the phone and walked over to the big window opening up into the main control room. CTU was nothing but windows. It was like a big goldfish bowl. None of them opened to the outside though. Closed off from the outside world but no privacy within. That was CTU. She noticed Agent Mueller across the room. 'Oh my God he's making moves on Heather from Security! And he's got a wife and kids! Why that sleazy no-good two timing bucket of slime!'

Bill wasn't suprised that Chloe didn't trust Karen but he was mildly surprised that she trusted him. When he walked into sickbay she was scowling out the window at something but turned to see him as he entered. He winced at the swollen blue and yellow mottled legs extending from the short hospital gown she wore. Her blond hair was damp and clung to her head. She didn't have a trace of makeup and looked like a young schoolgirl except for the eyes. They looked old, tired, but with a glint of triumph. A slight smile at the corner of her lips. He got a sudden urge to hug her but since her torso was probably worse than her legs she probably wasn't in the mood for hugs.

"Are you sure you don't want to lie down?"

"No, my feet are about the only parts that weren't pounded on. I prefer to stand."

"I need to talk to you about your after action report. Mueller's report said that he kidnapped you at gunpoint to exchange for the children. But your report says that he didn't kidnap you, that the terrorists contacted you directly and that you arranged the exchange yourself and only contacted Mueller afterwards to let him know where to pick up the children.

"Mueller was so distraught over the children I guess he felt himself to blame for what happened."

"Mueller's version matches the evidence. Your version doesn't match the evidence and frankly doesn't make any sense. The car he stole was found only three blocks from Dr. Akana's house. He came back to CTU driving your car. And why would the terrorists kidnap his children only to contact you instead of him? Dr. Akana said nobody contacted you at her house but CTU but you immediately tossed your purse into her bushes. I don't need to remind you of the penalties for filing a false report. They are quite severe."

Bill had seen that look on Chloe's face before. It was the hand-in-the-cookie-jar look she got whenever she was caught in a lie. Usually it was to help out Jack Bauer or some other agent in trouble. Her blunt honesty would make her a lousy field agent. "This man kidnapped you at gunpoint and turned you over to a terrorist group to be tortured and murdered. You don't owe him anything. Now Chloe, look me in the eyes and tell me what really happened."

Chloe looked him in the eyes then her gaze dropped to the splint on his hand and she winced. She stared at the sink in the corner then focused on his eyes. "They had his kids. He's a good man sir. We've lost far too many good men around here and I don't want to lose another." Her gaze then dropped to his chest. "I stand by my report," she mumbled.

Bill spent a long moment watching her fidget. "OK Chloe, I'll endorse your report. Maybe we can adjust it a bit. I don't think anyone reads these things anyway. No further action will be taken against Agent Mueller."

"Thank you sir."

"I've arranged to give you as much time off as you need to recover."

"No thanks, It will hurt just as much at home as it does here but when I'm working I don't think about it. Besides we still have that huge backlog of Chinese intercepts. I've just called Bobbie Lee over in Boston and he's going to help with the translations. We'll be working late."

"Are you sure about this?"

"I've got a neighbor who puts out cat food whenever I mysteriously vanish for long periods and we have a medical staff right here. I'll be fine."

"All right, let me know if you need anything."

"I would like to know where they're going to be buried.''

Bill looked puzzled, "Why?"

"It's personal, Oh never mind, I'll find out myself, I'm good at finding out things."

As Bill left the room Chloe looked out the window. Now Mueller was holding Heather's hand and looking into her eyes! 'Why that arrogant womanizing little turd!'

**Chloe's apartment two days later**

"So Fauve, I think I'm over the PTSD. I haven't had any panic attacks or nightmares and my paranoia's no worse than it would be for anyone else in my line or work."

"That doesn't make any sense! You've just gone through the worst trauma I can imagine. It should make you worse, not better."

Chloe slowly lowered herself on the couch. "Ow, ow, ow, I think it's that one treatment you mentioned. Exposure to stressful conditions where the patient is in complete control. I was under stressful conditions and I realized that I was in complete control."

"That's a very controversial technique to be used only under carefully controlled conditions. And those were hardly carefully controlled conditions. And let me get this straight. You were stripped naked, beaten within an inch of your life, locked in a cage by a gang of homicidal terrorists with no chance of rescue and you decided you were in complete control!"

"I was in control. They set the whole thing up for me. I was the one calling the shots by deciding whether or not to give them The-Thing-I-Can't-Talk-About. I was in complete control."

"But they could have killed you!"

"True, but I was in control of that too."

"That's the craziest thing I ever heard! Chloe, promise me that you'll never become normal! Normal people are so boring."

"I really don't think that will ever become a problem for either of us."

"So you thought The-Thing-You-Can't-Talk-About was worth dying for?"

"The-Thing-I-Can't-Talk-About is very important. More important than I am. So yes, it is worth dying for."

Fauve leaned forward in her chair. "So what is it that makes it so important?"

"I can't tell you about The-Thing-I-Can't-Talk-About. It's classified."

Fauve pouted. "Well the bad guys know about it."

"I don't care what the bad guys know or don't know! I'm not going to discuss classified materials with you!"

"Aw come on! How about a little hint?"

"For the last time Fauve, I'm not going to discuss classified materials and if you keep pumping me for information I'm going to shove you out the door!"

Fauve decided to back down. She knew Chloe wasn't bluffing and she wasn't joking. And she'd been on the receiving end of the legendary O'Brian temper enough to know when it was starting to boil. "OK, OK, I won't ask anymore. So much for my career as an international spy!"

"Just don't push me. If I don't tell you something there's a good reason for it."

"OK, OK, So you were able to tell your friends your exact location even though you didn't have any idea where you were! How did you do that?"

"That's classified too."

"Chloe! You're going to drive me up the wall! So now you're not worried about being killed anymore?"

"Of course I'm worried. I just learned to accept it, that's all."

"Well I think you need to adjust your calculations a bit."

"What do you mean?"

"Did you figure in that Chloe's smarter than the smarties, tougher than the toughies, and braver than the bravies?"

"Bravies? Is that even a word?"

"You know what I mean!"

"If by brave you mean a sniveling, terrified, little crybaby then I guess I was brave."

"Well, you didn't give them The-Thing-You-Can't-Talk-About."

"It was too important! I didn't have a choice!"

"You always have a choice. You just always make the right choice."

"Oh really! Think about every man I've ever had a relationship with!"

Fauve laughed, "Oh well, men don't count."

Chloe shut her eyes briefly, "Some of them do."

"And did you figure into your program that God and all his angels love you and were trying to keep you alive?"

"Well, no."

"That ought to be worth 50 points right there!"

Well, it's pretty hard to quantify."

"All I know is I was worried sick when you disappeared. I even looked up your friend, Father Petrowsky, and asked him to do some of his priest mojo with the Big Guy."

"How did you find him?"

"There's a finite number of Catholic priests named Mike in the LA area and I think I went through most of them. I don't know if it worked but I figured it couldn't hurt. Besides the friends of Chloe is a rather small and exclusive club. If you go missing we should all pull together."

"How did you find out I was missing?"

"A few hours after you disappeared I got interrogated by the tall, dark and super sexy Agent Manning who's phone number I'm sure you have stashed in your PDA."

"I can't give out personal information about other agents. That would get me fired or even arrested! I admit I've broken the rules a few times for very important reasons but you being horny is hardly a national security crisis!"

Fauve pouted, "It's just that I was so rude to him! I need to appologize!"

"I bet! OK, next time I see him I'll tell him you're interested but it would be up to him whether or not to call. He might already have a girlfriend."

"Fair enough. By the way I like the new black dress. It's a lot nicer than your old one. And the black hose is very sexy."

"Well the black hose is to hide my not so sexy legs which still frighten dogs and small children."

"Did they hurt you bad?"

"Yeah, they beat me pretty bad."

"Let me see."

"I don't know."

"Well I am a doctor."

"Oh very well!" Chloe said in an exasperated tone. She stood up and unzipped her new dress. It fell into a puddle around her ankles leaving her in her bra and panties. Fauve gave out a squeek at the sight of her bruised and battered body. Chloe rolled down her hose for good measure and then slowly turned around with her arms up to give Fauve a good look then pulled her dress back up. "OK, freak show's over. If you want another look you'll have to buy a ticket."

"Does it hurt much?"

"Not as much as yesterday, and yesterday was better than the day before. The Docs tell me I should heal completely except for a couple of small scars that would be hardly noticable."

"Oh I know a guy who can laser them off. We can even get Uncle Sugar to pay for it."

"No, I think I'll keep them. Scars are just records of our experiences. Our experiences are what makes us strong. Makes us who we are. Besides the kind of man I'm looking for isn't going to wuss out over a few scars."

"Are you sure all those sons of bitches are dead? Couldn't you leave just one for me?"

"Sorry Fauve, my buddies are pretty good at applied violence."

Fauve was sobered at the brief glimpse into the cruel, violent world that her nerdy college roomate had chosen to immerse herself into. "Well I give up. If this doesn't convince you to leave CTU, I don't know what will. I still hate the idea of you working in that awful place. You will never find happiness working there."

"I've never found happiness anywhere. I don't think I was ever meant to be happy. But at CTU I have purpose. I'm fighting the good fight. That's enough."

"And I suppose that tragic, doomed heroine is an alternative life style." Fauve declared putting her left hand on her chest and waving the other in a hammy grandious manner.

Chloe slapped her forehead with the back of her hand tossing her head back in an equally hammy manner.

"I'm still not sure you're completely recovered. I would still like to monitor you."

"Sure why not, Oh! I've got some good news. We're 90 sure we know who has Jack now. The world just got a lot smaller."

"And who would that be? Oh, it's classified isn't it?"

"Yeah, sorry about that. And I'm going to have to leave soon. I've got another funeral to go to."

"Oh that's too bad. One of your CTU friends?"

"No, Amy King, the babysitter. I didn't know her. Never met her. But sometimes I have to be reminded why I put up with this crap."

"I'll go with with you. Maybe I need to be reminded too."

"And as for the evil bastards who killed her I'm going to find out where they're buried. I can't go anytime soon I've got too many things to do now. But maybe later."

The two women looked at each other with nasty grins and shouted in unison "Road trip!"


End file.
